The Real Monsters
by UnderxGravity
Summary: Raven is having a tough night, and the only person that can help her is perhaps the person that she least expects. A tender moment, could be taken as friendship or romance. Enjoy!


_I miss Teen Titans. I always loved the tender moments between Beast Boy and Raven, and to me there weren't enough of them. So naturally, I created one. Enjoy!_

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It wasn't like this hadn't happened before. Actually, since the last time it happened she had promised to keep herself together. But at this point, all of her resolve was gone. Every emotion that she had been trying to contain leapt out at her, leaving her in a flux.

On the outside, she looked like someone possessed, writhing and moaning, grinding her teeth in an effort to stay in control. On the inside it was the same story, except on the inside her eyes were open. Painfully so.

If it wasn't the middle of the night, another member of the team might have heard her and come to see what was going on. Beast Boy was the only one up. After a hard day of fighting, the other teens were wiped out, glad to crash for the night, but Beast Boy was watching a monster movie marathon. For about a half an hour he actually thought that the noises from within Raven's room were part of one of his movies. When he paused the movie to get more snacks, he found that the sounds of struggle were in fact coming from within the Tower.

Beast Boy raised an eyebrow and jumped off of the couch, deciding to follow his real life horror flick over the cheesy Dracula remake he'd been watching. He transformed into a lion, focusing his hearing on the victim's struggle, ready to pounce on whatever monster came up. When he was close enough to her room , he could tell that the sounds were coming from Raven. A trickle of sweat running down his neck, he changed back into his "human" form and hurried over to her door.

He turned and placed a floppy green ear to the cool metal. Yeah, something wasn't right.

"Raven?" The struggle within continued without pause, and he quickly went rhino to take care of the pesky metal door. He cringed as he entered, knowing there'd be hell to pay for that later.

There she was, facing the night sky in her meditation stance. It didn't look as peaceful as usual though. It almost looked as though she was having some sort of seizure, eyes slightly open and glowing a pale green. When he reached out to touch her shoulder, she immediately became still, and then shuddered. She unfurled her legs and slowly lowered herself to the ground, using her hands to keep herself from hitting the carpet.

"Raven…" Hey eyes opened wide at the sound of his voice, and then closed again. She shivered, demonic images haunting her vision every time she blinked.

"Beast Boy," she said in a quiet voice, acknowledging his presence.

"Are, uh…. Are you okay? You were making some pretty weird noises a second ago."

"I'm… fine…" Raven struggled to level her voice, but she was still trying to still her shaking body beneath her cape.

Beast Boy knelt down next to her and offered out a hand. Beneath the thin material of the cloak, Raven stared out at her friend, trying to decide what the best course of action would be. When nothing came to her but another small shiver, she shut her eyes tightly and grabbed onto his hand.

He walked her over to a large, oversized reading chair and sat her down, perching at the end of one puffy arm.

"Okay, the whole 'I'm fine' thing only works if you're telling the truth. Which you're not, so… what's wrong, Raven?" She glared up at him, a tiny bit more composed than when he came in. At least the room stopped spinning.

"Beast Boy. For once, _try_ to understand me when I say that I need…" She trialed off, mapping out the rest of that conversation. What was the use? She might as well just tell him for once.

He waited patiently for her to continue speaking, swinging his legs back and forth like a little kid. When she cleared her throat, he looked up at her expectantly.

"Have you, uh… ever had a lot of emotions hit you at once?" She sucked in a breath, and looked down at her lap, wincing as withheld another attack.

"So you just try to compact them a little, hold them back. Because as soon as you let yourself feel, you know you'll lose it? And be…"

She waited for him to interrupt with some stupid joke. A part of her was wondering why he was still sitting here with her.

"Weak." She practically whispered it with a hint of venom in her voice, and even with his large ears Beast Boy struggled to hear her.

He turned to face her from the side of the chair.

"But feeling is normal." She knew he wouldn't understand.

"If you hadn't noticed by now, I'm far from normal."

"I know," he interjected quickly, "But having emotions doesn't make you weak. And you can't just bottle them up. That isn't good for you."

Her gaze went south. "Hey," he said gently. "Look at me."

Raven sharply met his eyes when he draped an arm across her shoulder, slightly glaring up at him. He flinched, but didn't pull away.

"I know you're not the touchy-feely type, but you gotta be able to talk to someone, you know? So if you ever need to just talk about anything, you know where to find me. Kay?" The moisture that threatened to fall from her eyes alarmed her, but she kept his gaze and gave him a single nod. He wrapped his other arm around her in a quick embrace and then hopped off.

"Oh, and uh, for the record. You're not weak. You're one of the strongest people I know." With his back still to her, he hurried out of the room, draping the door over its twisted metal frame.

Raven let out a sigh and tried to concentrate on the sweet silence of the room, but a resilient squeaking noise made her sit up. She raised an eyebrow as she watched her door slowly fall over, and land with an echoing SMACK! on the ground.

"What in the world ?"

"Yo BB, I know that musta been you man."

"Is everyone alright? Are the Ghrorfalls attacking us?"

"SORRY! My bad."

She rolled her eyes, drifting towards her bed. The only chaos to wake her for the rest of the night was the howls of a nineteen-sixties werewolf, and later the quiet scuttling of a small green mouse past her door.

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If you've the time and the warm fuzzies, be sure to leave a review. Thanks for reading.


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